Groundhog Day 2019: Facts, history and the story of Punxsutawney Phil

Katey Psencik, GateHouse Media

Thursday

Jan 31, 2019 at 3:27 PM

Every Feb. 2, a little groundhog pokes his head out of the ground to see if he can spot his shadow. As the legend goes, if he sees his shadow, he gets scared and burrows back into the ground, which means there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, it means spring is coming early.

So what's the story behind Groundhog Day? Why do we still celebrate it? Here's everything you need to know.

It all started in 1887.

Groundhog Day was celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Penn. after a local newspaper editor who belonged to a group of groundhog hunters declared Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog, the country's premier meteorologist.

The event at Gobbler's Knob draws tens of thousands of spectators every year.

About 6,000 people live in Punxsutawney, but that number rises every February when the yearly Groundhog Day festivities go down. A band plays and local leaders officiate the proceedings. You can watch a live stream of the 2019 event here.

The town officials who host the event are known as the "Inner Circle."

They wear top hats and apparently also speak to the groundhog in "Groundhogese."

The groundhogs don't actually predict the weather.

This may come as a shock to you, but winter doesn't technically end until March 20, so regardless of whether Phil sees his shadow, we get six more weeks of winter either way.

Phil is actually accurate 40 percent of the time.

Pretty good for an animal who didn't go to meteorology school. Scientists have studied Phil's accuracy and say he has about a 40 percent success rate.

Not the Groundhog Day you were looking for? Here are 10 things you may not have known about the classic Bill Murray movie.

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